A lawyer has been jailed for four years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for trafficking illegal immigrants into Ireland.
Olaitan Ilori, a father of four from Nigeria with an address at of Oak Drive, Blessington, Co Wickllow was convicted by a jury earlier this month.
He was found guilty of 12 counts of organising or knowingly facilitating on October 27th, 2004, the entry into the State of 12 adult Mauritian nationals whom he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were illegal immigrants.
The 12-day trial was the first case of trafficking of illegal immigrants to come before the Circuit Criminal Court.
The crime carries a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment.
Ilori had pleaded not guilty to 14 charges at the start of his trial Judge Martin Nolan directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts on two charges relating to two Mauritian children who travelled with the 12 adults to Dublin Airport.
The jury returned unanimous verdicts on seven charges and majority verdicts on five.
Judge Nolan said that the legislation surrounding this case covered a multitude of different offences, including cramming immigrants into containers, resulting in death of some people and bringing women, girls and men into this country for prostitution.
He said taking all this into account, Ilori's crime was at the lower end of the scale.
Judge Nolan said he accepted that there was a scheme in place and said that although there were others involved, Ilori was an actor in it and made financial gains through it.
The judge refused an application from defence counsel to suspend any portion of the prison term and refused leave to appeal conviction and sentence.